Best Microsoft MAI-Transcribe-1.5 Alternatives in 2026

Microsoft MAI-Transcribe-1.5 scores 7.9/10 on our tests. Here are 3 alternatives worth considering in the AI Business & Productivity space.

Microsoft MAI-Transcribe-1.5 logo

Microsoft MAI-Transcribe-1.5

B

Microsoft's in-house speech-recognition line. **MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming launched 2026-10-01 -- Microsoft's first real-time streaming transcription model, ranked No. 1 on Artificial Analysis for both final and partial transcripts, 60 languages with continuous language detection, first partial hypotheses just over 100 ms after audio arrives, at an introductory $0.54 per hour of audio through the end of 2026.** It sits beside the batch **MAI-Transcribe-2 (2026-09-03, $0.10 per hour)**, which superseded the 1.5 model this page was built on: diarization, configurable styles, word-level timestamps, No. 1 on FLEURS across 60 languages. Microsoft pairs the streaming model with the new MAI-Voice-2.1-Flash for voice agents.

7.9
Current pick

Top Alternatives, Ranked

1Fireflies.ai logo

AI meeting notetaker with 6,000+ integrations that records, transcribes, and summarizes your calls **Pricing refreshed 2026-10-06: Free now stores 400 minutes per team (was 800) with 20 AI credits; Pro is $18 monthly or $10 per seat on annual billing; Business $29 or $19 with unlimited storage; a new Enterprise tier at $39 per seat, annual only; plus Fireflies Talk, a free unlimited dictation tool.**

Overall: 7.8/10Free tier availableFrom $0
2Otter.ai logo

Joins your meetings, transcribes everything, and gives you a summary so you can actually pay attention. **Pricing re-verified 2026-10-05: Basic stays free at 300 minutes/month with a 30-minute cap per conversation; Pro is $16.99/user/month monthly and annual billing drops Pro to $8.33; Business is $30 monthly or $19.99 annual and now advertises unlimited meetings and imports instead of a 6,000-minute cap.**

Overall: 7.5/10Free tier availableFrom $0
3Notion AI logo

**Notion's 2026-10-13 release lets Business and Enterprise members connect a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription to cover their Notion AI usage with no markup, adds a Skills API that syncs Skills to ChatGPT and Claude, column-level database permissions, admin controls for MCP-connected agents, rebuilt GitHub/Jira/Salesforce synced databases and seven new models including GPT-6.1 Sol and Opus 5.5.** **Notion 3.7 (2026-09-15)**: Agent skills for the whole team -- reusable instructions that teach Notion Agent how your team works, kept in a shared skills library and run with a slash command. **Model controls (2026-09-09)**: Business/Enterprise workspace owners can now pick which AI models Notion Agent and Custom Agents may use and set a default -- a cost and compliance lever the page lacked. Also new since July: suggest-edits mode (8/28), a model picker with scorecards (8/14), the Developer Portal in the sidebar (8/19), and AI Meeting Notes triggering Custom Agents (7/31). AI built into Notion -- Custom Agents exited beta 2026-05-04/05 with admin controls (per-agent spend caps, workspace caps, auto-pause on limit) and credit billing live at $10 / 1,000 credits (~$0.17-$0.33 per agent run) as an add-on to Business/Enterprise

Overall: 7.0/10No free tierFrom $10/month

Score Comparison

ToolEase of UseOutput QualityValueFeaturesOverall
Microsoft MAI-Transcribe-1.5(current)6.09.59.07.07.9
Fireflies.ai7.57.07.59.07.8
Otter.ai9.07.07.07.07.5
Notion AI9.06.06.07.07.0

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